Joy Marketing: Our Top TV Tear Jerkers of All Time

It's a growing trend and a great way to connect a brand with its audience. Joy Marketing has been hitting our screens for quite some years now and you probably didn't even realise it...

For those of you that don't know, Joy Marketing is a technique that is used in marketing campaigns to appeal to a customer's emotions. The aim is to use an advertising campaign to appeal to the audience's emotions by tugging on their heart strings or making them laugh. This can be anything from inspirational quotes to posters to sentimental video campaigns.

Here's how the big names do it...

Coca-Cola - 'It's the Real Thing' Advert

It's all about emotional storytelling - if your story can connect with viewers, then your brand is bound to stand out from the crowds as something the audience is going to remember. The technique was even being used back in 1971, when Coca-Cola's advertising company created the 'It's the Real Thing' advert. The advert features a song, 'I'd like to buy the world a coke' which is sung by a group of people meeting together on the hill top. After the advert was released the Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers received more than 100,000 letters about the commercial asking for sheet music and lyrics. Fans even begged radio stations to play it and the song made the national charts. The ad united viewers to share a coke together and, in turn, sales at Coca-Cola rocketed.

Released all those years ago, it's still ranked by ITV as one of the top 10 ads of all time. Not only that, but due to the advert becoming so iconic Coca-Cola have since released the 'Share a Coke' campaign which is a follow up campaign from the 1971 ad. The company printed coke bottles with a range of first names for consumers to find. The campaign is aimed at the younger, more mobile savvy audience, to get customers to take a photo of their bottle and share it when they find their name. Playing on the success of the ad in 1971 this new nostalgic ad enables a feel-good connection between the brand and the audience, illustrating the brand message of sharing a Coke together.

The Coca-cola 'I'd like to buy the world a Coke' advert

Save the Children - 'Most Shocking Second a Day'

Save the Children captivated its audience with the 'Second-a-Day' advert. The aim of the ad was to make audiences aware of the conflict in Syria, to highlight the ongoing crisis and to make viewers aware of the plight of children and mothers in developing countries without proper access to healthcare. The key message was 'just because it isn't happening here, doesn't mean it isn't happening'. The ad shows a second long clip of a young girl from London's life every day and what it would be like for the young girl if she were a child in Syria.

The ad raised awareness and proved hugely successful - achieving over 45 million YouTube views, 875,000 Facebook interactions and more than 50,000 Tweets. The Save the Children YouTube channel subscriptions also rose by 1000% - talk about creating an impact!

Save the Children's 'Most Shocking Second a Day' advert

T-Mobile - 'Welcome Back'

This has got to be one to make you smile - the T-Mobile 'Welcome Back' Advert in 2009. The ad was filmed at Heathrow Airport as passengers were arriving from a flight and greeted with their loved ones. The marketing agency behind T-Mobile placed a flash mob of 300 people within the arrivals lounge to burst into song as passengers arrived. And what a better way to connect with the consumers? The ad went viral with over 3.2 million views within 18 days - the ad really captures the essence of their campaign, 'life is for sharing'. Although it is a simple idea, it inspires sharing with family and friends and the simplest way of doing that these days is via your mobile phone!

It's not the first flash mob video by T-Mobile, this is only one of many! But each one reinforces the message 'life is for sharing' and in turn this builds a strong brand.

A welcome home to remember from T-Mobile at Terminal 5.

Extra Gum - 'Sarah and Juan'

I've got to admit that chewing gum isn't the most romantic thing in the world, but Extra Gum has captured the hearts of viewers with the story of Sarah and Juan. The heart-warming new commercial tells the tale of Sarah and Juan's relationship, from the first time they met at school when Sarah offered Juan a stick of gum, to the two getting engaged - all set to the song 'Can't Help Falling in Love'. All along the way Juan draws little sketches of their dates on the back of the gum wrappers. The tag-line of the romantic tale reads, 'A girl. A guy. And a stick of gum. See their love story unwrap.' - talk about smooth!

The beautiful love story touched millions of viewers, and fans tweeted about the ad claiming how they couldn't help but get choked up by the sweet ending. The ad has managed to turn a gum wrapper (usually a piece of rubbish) into a sentimental souvenir - very clever!

Sarah and Juan's heart-warming story

Sainsbury's - 'Christmas Truce'

We all know that Christmas hasn't arrived until you've seen the John Lewis advert, but Sainsbury's had a go at claiming the top spot back in 2000. They recreated one of the most famous moments of the First World War where British and German soldiers emerged from their trenches to exchange gifts and play football. The Christmas truce is an emotive and cherished story in our history and this is what Sainsbury's have played on to engage with their audiences.

Despite the fact the supermarket reconstructed the trench scenes with the help of a war historian and involvement from the Royal British Legion the advert has received both positive and negative responses. But is any publicity good publicity? - we think so!

Christmas Eve, 1914 - and Sainsbury's are making us all cry...

John Lewis - 'Monty the Penguin'

Here it is. One of the most anticipated events of the festive season - the John Lewis advert. One of their best ads of all time has got to be the, 'Monty the Penguin' festive advert featuring a young boy and what appears to be his pet penguin playing together on the lead up to Christmas Day.

Spending a whopping £7million on their campaign paid off, sales rocketed on release of the ad as parents rushed out to John Lewis to purchase cuddly toy versions of Monty the penguin - this is why John Lewis's penguin ad has got to be a contender for the best ad of all time. Not only have they managed to bring their brand into the limelight with the ad, but they've even managed to sell a promotional product specific to the ad.

Who wants a Monty...?

If you're thinking about trying this technique out, what we need to remember about joy marketing is that being emotive with your marketing doesn't mean you have to make your audiences cry or fall in love with your campaign. What we need to understand is that we all make purchasing decisions based upon emotion. And this is what marketers need to appeal to! It doesn't have to be cute penguins or flash mobs it just means you need to make people emotionally connect with your marketing.

But how do you do that? Well, it's all about selling the features of your product, how will this benefit your customer and how will it impact on their life for the better? Give people an emotional reason to connect with what you're saying which will develop a more meaningful relationship with your customers, then BOOM you've got it, a very strong campaign and a very strong brand!

Rebecca Blake - Marketing AssistantNever one to get flustered, Rebecca handles everything thrown at her with calmness, authority, and no shortage of creative flair. She just never seems to have an off day!

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